The 1.1 million-square-foot Inova at Landmark project got unanimous approval by the Alexandria City Council on Saturday, giving the hospital system the green light to build the future home of Alexandria Hospital.

Inova wants to start construction on the former Landmark Mall site in 2024 and have the four-building hospital campus finished by 2028. The hospital building is designed to face I-395, making it a gateway for drivers traveling north.

After years of stagnation, Alexandria started working with Inova on the site about three years ago — while the City was starting to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“To be at this point at this time is really transformational, and this is a big deal,” Mayor Justin Wilson said. “I do think this is really important and it’s gonna be really a gateway for our community for a long time to come.”

Inova at Landmark includes a 569,000 square-foot hospital center, a 111,000 square-foot cancer center, an 83,000 square-foot specialty care center and a retrofitted 550-space parking garage. A 1,488-space below-grade parking garage is also planned with at least 19 parking spaces set aside for electric vehicle charging.

“It is our duty to ensure that our new hospital is not only a state-of-the-art facility, but also a place where compassion, excellence, and innovation come together to provide the best possible care for our community” said J. Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Inova in a statement. “We are thrilled with Council’s action and are excited to make this vision come to life.”

Inova can build up to 250 feet, or 23 stories, for the tallest structures, the main hospital building and the cancer center, although the latter is proposed to be only 77 feet tall.

Inova currently plans to build a 184-foot tall main hospital building (nearly 17 stories) with a two story glass atrium at its entrance, above which would be a six-story Z-shaped inpatient tower. Inova anticipates that the building will be 184 feet tall to hide hospital mechanical equipment inside a “mechanical penthouse.”

“As one of the individuals who was born in the now soon-to-be old Alexandria Hospital, I look forward to having new generations of Alexandrians have quality care and to be born in a state-of-the-art facility,” said City Council Member John Taylor Chapman.

Each building will be constructed under LEED Silver guidelines. According to a city staff report:

The campus buildings will feature window glazing and building design to minimize heat gains, low-flow faucets and fixtures, high indoor environmental air quality, and will participate in Dominion’s Renewable Power Program with a goal to achieve a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030.

Inova will also dedicate 64,000 square feet to open space on the site, in addition to building a 14,810-square-foot central plaza in Block Q. Inova must also submit a “consolidated and coordinated” public art plan for the hospital campus.

Landmark Mall first opened in 1965, and was the first mall in the region to feature three anchor department stores (Sears, Woodward & Lothrop, and Hecht’s). By 2010, the mall had nearly no tenants and in 2021, the city bought the 11-acre parcel of land for $54 million from The Howard Hughes Corporation. Inova signed a 99-year ground lease for the property that same year.

Stephanie Landrum, president and CEO of the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, said that the project makes Inova Alexandria Hospital an anchor that “redefines one of our largest neighborhoods and is a tangible and visible signal of the strength of the Alexandria economy.”

“This helps us attract additional investments, employers, and residents that will bring the WestEnd project to life,” Landrum said.

The project takes up a fifth of the total land use on the 52-acre West End Alexandria development. It was designed by Ballinger and Ennead Architects and is managed by Inova.

City Council is back for our March Public Hearing.

Today we are considering the final approval of our new Alexandria Hospital at the site of the former Landmark Mall. pic.twitter.com/voMQXaEt4j

— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) March 18, 2023

No arrests have been made since a man was fatally shot in the Landmark area on Friday night.

The Alexandria Police Department was dispatched to the 200 block of S. Reynolds Street at around 11:30 p.m. for reports of a man shot in the upper body. Multiple callers reported to police that a black SUV fled the area after the incident.

“Officers discovered a man with trauma to his upper body and rendered first aid until rescue personnel arrived,” APD said in a release. “The victim was then transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.”

The man has not been identified, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy.

This is the third shooting death of 2023 in the city, following the death of a teenager in the West End in January and a homicide in Arlandria last month.

Anyone with information on this incident can call Detective Michael Whelan at 703-746-6228, via email at [email protected], or through the APD non-emergency number at 703-746-4444. Callers can remain anonymous.

Map via Google Maps

News Release: The Alexandria Police Department is investigating a homicide that occurred in the 200 block of South Reynolds Street.

Read more: https://t.co/mRZ6Z0N54B pic.twitter.com/XSYnZTjl5O

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) March 4, 2023

Notification:: There is a moderate police presence in the 300 block of South Reynolds Street, this is in response to a shots fired incident. One person was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. APD is on scene and investigating the incident. pic.twitter.com/QngXKuOBSx

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) March 4, 2023

A 45-year-old man is being held without bond in connection with a stabbing in the West End on Saturday evening, according to the Alexandria Police Department.

Police were dispatched just before 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, to the ninth floor of an apartment building in the 300 block of S. Reynolds Street for a report of shots fired and found the victim suffering from a non-lethal stab wound to the midsection.

The suspect, Akkeim Edwards, was arrested without incident and charged with felonious assault. He goes to court for the incident on March 15.

Edwards was sentenced to 90 days in the Alexandria jail for indecent exposure in 2011, with a year suspended. He was also found guilty of trespassing in 2020, and spent two months in jail, with two years of supervised probation, according to court records.

The incident is still under investigation, police said, and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Edmund Dougherty at 703-746-6697, email at [email protected], or by calling the Alexandria Police Department non-emergency number at 703-746-44444. Callers can remain anonymous.

Notification:: There is a heavy police presence in the 300 block of South Reynolds Street. This is in response to a felonious assault incident. Two victims sustained non-life threatening injuries and were transported to the hospital. APD is on scene and investigating. pic.twitter.com/lDaDRIbBCv

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) February 5, 2023

News Release:: The Alexandria Police Department is investigating a stabbing incident that occurred on Saturday.

Read more:: https://t.co/FTMOWnMVHl pic.twitter.com/LReKoL84W1

— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) February 8, 2023

Map via Google Maps

The massive Inova at Landmark project is headed to the Alexandria Planning Commission and City Council for final approval in March and the project could wrap by 2028.

The city released Inova’s development site use permit application last week and it includes new renderings for the 930,000-square-foot hospital campus. The Planning Commission’s public hearing on the project is on Tuesday, March 7, and the City Council public hearing will be held on Saturday, March 18.

Inova, which has held numerous public meetings on the project, wants construction to occur between 2024 and 2028. That schedule is subject to change, Inova’s attorney Cathy Puskar previously told ALXnow.

Inova at Landmark includes 675,000 square feet devoted to the new hospital, 130,000 square feet to a cancer center and 110,000 square feet to a specialty outpatient care center. The inpatient hospital is designed to be nine stories tall and includes a roof tower to hide hospital mechanical equipment that would make the structure 175-feet tall (16 stories).

Inova signed a 99-year ground lease for the property more than two years ago, and sent its first wrecking ball into the former Landmark Mall in May 2022. The old above-ground 550-space parking garage is the only structure that remains, and it will be retrofitted into the new hospital campus.

The project makes up a fifth of the total land use on the 52-acre West End Alexandria development. The city bought the 11-acre parcel of land for $54 million from The Howard Hughes Corporation in 2021, and Inova has a 99-year ground lease for the hospital land.

The project was designed by Ballinger and Ennead Architects, and is being managed by Inova.

A 32-year-old D.C. man is being held without bond after an armed carjacking in the West End.

The incident occurred at around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 16, when the male victim was walking to a construction job in the 400 block of S. Van Dorn Street. The victim parked his Toyota Tundra and walked a short distance when the suspect approached him from behind and pointed a handgun at him and demanded his property, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.

The victim told police that the suspect stole his car, keys, phone, a chain necklace and a box cutter. Police tried chasing the stolen Tundra, but it eluded them.

“The vehicle refused to stop for numerous law enforcement officers,” police said in the search warrant affidavit. “In the process, the vehicle struck one vehicle that was stopped at an intersection.”

Donte Tavon Thomas was arrested near the abandoned Tundra under the Van Dorn Street Bridge, which is in the Carlyle area. Police also found a handgun with an extended magazine on the ground within “arms reach” of Thomas, according to the search warrant affidavit.

Thomas was charged with armed robbery, receiving a stolen firearm, use of a firearm in commission of a felony, providing a false identity to law enforcement, eluding police, and property damage hit-and-run.

The City of Alexandria is looking at adding protected bike lanes (page 21) to Eisenhower Avenue and South Pickett Street in the Van Dorn neighborhood.

A report to the Transportation Commission last week reviewed some of the plans for adding protected bike lanes around the city. The plan, as recommended in the Complete Streets Five-Year Plan reviewed in June, includes adding these new bike lanes sometime in the next five years.

Protected bike lanes are facilities that are fully separated from vehicular traffic with a physical divider, like a curb, bollards or planters.

The protected bike lanes would run on:

• South Pickett Street (from Duke Street to Edsall Road)
• Eisenhower Avenue (from South Van Dorn Street to Holmes Run Parkway)

While that stretch of Eisenhower has traditionally been industrial areas and small clusters of local businesses, the area is gradually urbanizing with large swaths of new residential development planned.

According to a report filed at the Transportation Commission:

Staff have taken steps aimed to streamline decision-making regarding bicycle lane design and implementation. The adoption of the Curbside Prioritization Framework in the Alexandria Mobility Plan (AMP) helps staff identify where bike lanes would be a high priority. As part of this framework, bike lanes, among other items included in City plans, were identified as the highest priority use in all land use contexts.

The report said protected bike lanes are an important strategy for meeting the needs of riders of all ages and abilities.

Bike lanes have not always been fondly received in Alexandria: bike lanes were paired with a road diet on Seminary Road that stirred up some local controversy in 2019.

Image via Google Maps

An industrial park on Vine Street, squeezed between the Van Dorn Street Metro station and the Beltway, could be replaced with a new mixed-use development — and a new potential connection to the Van Dorn Metro station.

The development plans, however, hinge on hopes that the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) express lane plans don’t bleed over onto the site.

The development proposed is just a smidge south of the Alexandria border with Fairfax at the Van Dorn Street Metro station. Plans submitted to Fairfax County shows the current industrial park could be replaced with offices and a hotel on the west end of the site and apartments with ground-floor retail on the eastern end, per a map of the proposed development.

The project would build a new pedestrian access to the Metro from the south and a potential pedestrian/vehicular connection to the opposite side of the Beltway, though what form those connections could take are vague in the development plans.

The plans propose minimal on-site parking requirements both because it is so close to the Van Dorn Street Metro station and to encourage Metro use.

The main thrust of the amendment is a request that requirements for access across the Beltway be kept flexible as the development works around the VDOT’s plans for the area.

The amendment notes that the comprehensive plan is very specific in its recommendation of a bridge over the Beltway connecting the site to Oakwood Road, but that could be complicated by the VDOT plans to add express lanes on I-495. With the site sitting so close to the Van Dorn Street intersection, VDOT’s changes to the interchange — like potential road widening or toll infrastructure — could interfere with any plans to build a bridge at the site.

“The schematic in Exhibit A does not show the bridge from Oakwood Road across the Beltway because of the potential such an alignment may never materialize depending on the final HOT Lanes design,” the application said. “The comprehensive plan text proposed with this nomination, as described below, provides flexibility for how such access could be provided in the future.”

The application asked for flexibility to adapt transportation plans for the site to VDOTs plans for the corridor.

Image via Google Maps

A 31-year-old Maryland man is being held without bond for allegedly robbing a 28-year-old woman in the Landmark area on Saturday night (Nov. 26).

Police said that the incident was domestic, and that it occurred at around 9:15 p.m. in the 5700 block of Dow Avenue.

A personal item was stolen from the victim, who was not injured, police said. The suspect was arrested a short time later and charged with domestic assault and battery and robbery from a person.

The Alexandria Sexual Assault Center and Domestic Violence Program is available 24/7 to listen and help at 703-746-4911.

“If you are a neighbor and know that an abusive incident is occurring, call the police immediately,” the city said. “Calling the police is simply the most effective way to protect the victim and children from immediate harm.”

Via Google Maps

It’s been a busy week as the city announced progress on a few new policies that could give a financial boost to some Alexandrians in need.

One of the most notable is a pilot project testing out a Universal Basic Income pilot with $500 a month for local residents making less than half of the area median income. Local residents can apply for Alexandria’s Recurring Income for Success and Equity (ARISE) online.

Another funding request under consideration is $500,000 to a program that offers grants to minority-owned businesses. Minority-owned businesses were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and the program aims to offer support for those that may have been missed from earlier recovery programs.

1. Alexandria seeking qualified locals to receive $500 a month for two years
2. Pedestrian critically injured in Landmark crash
3. No injuries after shots fired on Duke Street Sunday night
4. Townsend Van Fleet, Alexandria City Council candidate and community leader, dies
5. Jersey Mike’s to open in Alexandria Commons tomorrow
6. Alexandria Hyundai gets approval to run in Del Ray until 2045
7. Two crashes with serious injuries bookend Monday
8. Meet the couple behind one of Old Town’s best Halloween displays
9. Alexandria opens up about progress on Holmes Run Trail fix and Mount Vernon Trail widening
10. City Manager Jim Parajon to discuss exchanging building heights for more affordable housing